From The Cliff to the Courtroom: Kent Lovern Leads Wisconsin’s Largest DA Office

By Eli Meschko

Media & Communications Coordinator

Milwaukee County in Wisconsin was founded in 1835. In its 190-year history, it has had 32 district attorneys serve it.

Briar Cliff University can proudly boast that one of its alumni is among them.

Kent Lovern, a 1993 graduate of Briar Cliff and 2025 recipient of the Spirit of St. Francis Award, is the newest district attorney of Milwaukee County. He was elected as the district attorney on November 5, 2024, and assumed office on January 6, 2025.

However, he has served in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office since 1998. He started off as an assistant district attorney, and after nine years, he was promoted to the administrative team as a deputy district attorney. In 2008, he was named the chief deputy district attorney.

“I really was the chief operating officer of the district attorney’s office here in Milwaukee County,” Lovern said. “We have 125 lawyers and 175 support staff, so it’s a big office.”

Prior to getting his career started in law, Lovern was just a kid in Wichita, Kansas, who knew he wanted to work in public service. He wasn’t quite sure what that looked like, but his favorite books were biographies and history-related titles.

Many of the people he read about who were involved in public service got their starts by going to law school. So, he ultimately made up his mind that he was going to follow in their footsteps and graduate from law school once he was older.

His family moved from Wichita to Sioux City his junior year of high school, where he ended up attending Bishop Heelan. After graduating, he made the move to Iowa City to attend the University of Iowa.

But after his freshman year, he decided he wanted a smaller-school experience and transferred closer to home to Briar Cliff, where he served as student government president for two years and graduated with a degree in history and a minor in business.

Immediately following graduation from The Cliff, he returned to the University of Iowa for law school. There, he challenged himself by completing a program where he could compress a three-year curriculum into two years.

While in law school, he ended up meeting his wife. She had already been enrolled in law school, so it worked out perfectly when they graduated at the same time.

While the program worked out personally for Kent, it’s not something he would recommend to everyone.

“Law school was tough, especially with the compressed program,” Lovern said. “I felt prepared for it, though. The education I received at Briar Cliff was very strong and certainly prepared me for all the reading, research and writing I had to do as a law student.”

He credited the chair of the history department at the time, Sister Edith Gottsacker, for being a huge influence on him academically. He noted how demanding she was of him, but also how interesting she was to talk to as a person.

“On a personal level, Mary Day is somebody who I became good friends with,” Lovern said. “We’ve remained good friends to this day, and she’s someone I stay in touch with.”

Following law school, he moved to Milwaukee with his wife, as she had a clerkship with the law firm von Briesen & Roper, s.c., where she now serves as its president and chief executive officer.

His first job was at a small general practice law firm in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He worked there for about a year and a half before finding work for two judges in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. After a year, he got his start in the district attorney’s office.

His motivation to climb the ranks in the DA’s office stemmed from his childhood interest in public service. Through the different roles he held over the years, he came to understand how the office can engage the broader community through strategies that reflect the connection between public safety and public health.

When housing, employment and education all work well together, a community can be lifted up without relying so much on police, prosecutors, judges or corrections officers to keep it safe.

“I’ve had the ability to work with folks and organizations beyond the criminal justice system to develop strategies to strengthen the health metrics in our community,” Lovern said. “Strategies to help people avoid the criminal justice system and strengthen the potential livelihood for more people in our community, especially those who never had much opportunity in their lives.”

While he has established himself as a successful attorney, his community impact expands beyond the courtroom.

He currently serves as the president-elect of the Rotary Club of Milwaukee and is a board member and past president of the Sojourner Family Peace Center—the largest nonprofit provider of domestic violence prevention and intervention services in Wisconsin.

Even through everything he’s accomplished in his own life, he doesn’t expect either of his two sons, Sam and Zach, to follow exactly in his footsteps. From day one, his message to them is to find something that can make an impact and that they find fulfilling beyond their own lives.

“My sons know that there’s a bigger world than their own,” Lovern said. “I’m excited to see what they will do and what they’ve already done. It’s been fun to watch.”

Through his years of experience meeting people and groups from different sectors and backgrounds, Lovern has always aspired towards Franciscan values. They, along with his time at Briar Cliff, have consistently fueled his interest in service to the community.